Abilities
An ability is to be able. I.e.'' to be able to is to have an ability. An ability is to be able to do something—to have an effect.'' T''o be able to do more than one thing is to have abilities. Walking is an ability that the non-dis-abled are en''able to exercise. The quotidian discourse on abilities and disabilities tends, frequently, to be very sketchy: as in People are often afraid of being called disabled ("there's nothing wrong with me.") Many would not like to admit being unable to control one's anger or one's drinking is being literally—''dis able—not able to do something—lacking ability—''(disabled). Spinoza spoke of “powers to effect and be effected” as what defines a body and a life. A power to effect and be affected is a potential to move, act, perceive, and think — in a word, powers of existence. The “to be effected” part of the definition says that a body’s powers of existence are irreducibly relational. They can only be expressed in dynamic relation with other bodies and elements of the environment. The power to effect and the power to be effected are inseparable; they are two sides of the same coin. They are reciprocals, growing and shrinking as a function of each other. So from the start, affect overspills the individual, tying its capacities to its relational entanglement with others and the outside. Affect is fundamentally transindividual. The word “power” here is in the first instance not power-over. It is power-to. Affect grasps life from the angle of its activity, its exuberance, its drive to express always more of a body’s powers of existence or potential to be, in an always irreducibly relational way, in attunement with the affordances of the outside. It is an expansive concept, and a concept of expression. Each act expresses powers of existence, and varies them, affecting and being affected in a way unique to that circumstance, so that every act of being is also a modification that takes its place in an ongoing becoming. Power-to is the power to change. That is the starting point: a nonlimitative concept of power as life-enhancing, and life-changing, through an openness onto the outside. Abilities enable you to produce art, but art can also produce abilities. Here's some results of asceticism, which is psychosomatic art. The achievement of these may be inborn, spontaneous, through mortification, play, or through meditation. Abilities are uncounted but there are for instance Xenoglossy, sign language, sculpting, jet flying, handstanding, Anima (Invisability or reduction in size), Mahima (Ability to make the body heavier), Laghima (Ability to make the body light and fly), Prapti (Using senses to gain material objects), Prakashya (Being able to envision things in all cosmic realms), Ishita (Control of other beings and elements), Vashita (Control of the senses), Yatkamastadavasyati (Attainment of bliss or supreme joy). The eight Vasus or Vedic Gods who serve Vishnu, also correspond to and are deities presiding over these eight siddhis. These are Agni or Fire (anima siddhi); Earth (Mahima siddhi); Vayu or Wind (Laghima siddhi); Soma or Moon (Yatkamastadavasyati siddhi); Sun (Ishita siddhi); Stars or Grahas (Prapti siddhi); Akasha or ether (Prakashya siddhi) and the Sky (Vashita siddhi). They restore to life, the dead (I.117.7, 12), and even those as Syava who were cut into several pieces (I.117.24). These are Mahamrityunjaya siddhis. This reminds us of Vedic sages as Ushana, who had various life-restoring siddhis. Less awesome or more quotidian abilities or properties are e.g. swagger, radiance, or charm. „''Her body language was disorienting, her style foreign. She seemed continually on the verge of colliding with someone, but people melted out of her way, stepped sideways, made room''.“ --- Gibson, William 1984 «Neuromancer» p. 39 — describes Molly. And youth: The Tibetan lama, Dragpa Jetsen, for example, distinguishes three aspects of the royal art: the “''Alchemy of life'': he can make his life last as long as the sun and moonthe'' Alchemy of body'': he can make his body eternally be but sixteen years oldand the Alchemy of enjoyments: he can turn iron and copper into gold” (quoted by Beyer, 1978, p. 253).